I loved reading your story and the first response which seemed almost an extension of your story.

I had my own experience a while ago, when I went to do a master’s degree abroad. After the first few months there my flat mate commented that I looked slimmer I jumped on the scale and noticed I had lost about 7kg! Granted not nearly as much as you but it seemed like a lot, particularly because dieting always seemed like such a pain.

The main difference was the walking. I went from a life in my car to walking everywhere. The walk to the university was about 25mins each way and in addition grocery shopping etc.

Looking back it was probably one of the first times I was not focused on food. I was too busy exploring the culture, studying, going out and having fun (I remember dancing a lot!).

As any yo yo dieter may confirm, it’s usually an all in or all out mindset. I think that by doing constant gentle exercise and focusing awareness on something else, the body just craved food when hungry instead of craving food emotionally. That has been my trigger and one that I continue to work on today. As I get deeper into a habit of meditation my aim is to rebalance myself once again and move awareness to more interesting things than food :).